November Session: Subterranean imaginaries
Schedule
Mon, 10 Nov, 2025 at 07:30 am
UTC+11:00Location
The Old Church on the Hill | Bendigo, VI
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Subterranean Imaginaries and Groundwater Narratives - Telling the stories of subterranean water,
by Deborah Wardle
Subterranean Imaginaries and Groundwater Narratives (Wardle 2024) examines the ways that climate writing, in particular climate fiction, portrays, but has mostly neglected, groundwater’s potency and vulnerability. Groundwater narratives, I argue, urges readers and writers towards deeper, subterranean views.
Dr Tom Gleeson, a hydrogeologist from University of Victoria, Canada says:
‘Groundwater depletion, contamination, and governance challenges persist despite decades of groundwater research. Scientific methods are crucial, yet seem insufficient to inspire the deep emotional and cultural connections needed for real change – groundwater challenges and opportunities are not reaching enough hearts and minds.’
Groundwater narratives aim to address these challenges. I argue that climate writing is enhanced by adding a subterranean perspective. Linking the politics of writing in the Anthropocene with a philosophical appreciation of what it means to write of things we cannot immediately “see”, groundwater narratives enter realms where subterranean imaginaries, science and harsh reality merge in response to climate change.
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Dr Deborah Wardle is a fiction and non-fiction writer. Her book Subterranean Imaginaries and Groundwater Narratives (Routledge, 2024), explores climate writing’s expressions of groundwater’s potency and vulnerability. Deborah published a collection of writing from research and fieldwork on the Barwon Downs borefield, Understanding Aquifers through Groundwater Stories (deborahwardle.com 2024). She edited and contributed the short essay, ‘Nonhuman Imaginaries’ to A to Z of Creative Writing Methods (Boomsbury 2023). She has stories and essays published in significant Australian and International journals including Meanjin, Overland, and The Big Issue, Swamphen, Junctures (New Zealand) Feral Feminisms, (Canada) Meniscus, Mosaic (Canada), and Animal Studies Journal. Deborah has taught creative writing and climate literature at University of Melbourne and RMIT. Deborah lives on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in central Victoria and is passionate about grassland restoration. She is working on her first novel, featuring groundwater and threats to its sustainability in rural Australia.
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All Welcome!
Gold coin donation appreciated. After the talk we will trip down the hill to the Queen's Arms for dinner and drinks, as usual.
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Where is it happening?
The Old Church on the Hill, 36 Russell Street,Bendigo,VIC,AustraliaEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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